Ok, we all know that Knockback/Knockdown (KD) is an issue in this game. Simply enough, there are NOT enough game mechanics to balance the skill.


SHORT VERSION:

1. Remove Knockback Resistance, ADD status effect Grounded.
2. Grounded has 2 Variables, TIME and %Resist
3. Every skill that causes knockback would have vales for TIME and RESIST that would stack while grounded is up.
4. When Grounded reaches 100%, time can no longer be added to it.
5. Certain defensive skills will now confer Grounded upon use to encourage preemptive AND reactionary play.

This would cause the strategic use of skills that cause Knockback instead of the spamming of these skill. Spamming is still an option, but quickly reduces the skills in question to Direct Damage skills.

LONG VERSION:


What We Have Now:

Skills that cause KD100% of the time w/ NO Knockback Resistence (KBR)
Skills that cause KD X % of the time w/NO KBR
Skills that cause KD 100% of the time w/ KBR
Skills that cause KD X% of the time w/ KBR

The issue here is that we are looking at skills from the "You either get knocked back or you don't" perspective.

The second issue is that there are few ways to effectively counter KB.

What I Propose:

Removal of KBR
Add "Grounded" status effect

~Grounded : Lasts for 10 Second. Confers % Based Knockback resistence that is stackable. Every skill that causes knockdown, upon knockdown, will confer a % of knockdown resistence and add to the Grounded Time. At 100%, Grounded become unrenewable. Grounded has max duration of 10s.

EXAMPLE: Lash. Deals X Damage. Confers 25% KBR upon knockdown. Confers 10s of Grounded.

FUNCTION:
Player is hit by Lash. Player gaines 25% KBR for 10 seconds. (G = 10s, 25%)
2 Seconds later, player is hit by lash, which has 75% chance for KD. Player is KD. Grounded is renewed, upped to 50% resist. (G= 10s, 50%)
1 Second later player is hit by lash. Player has 50% Chance of KD. Player is NOT knocked down.
5 Second later player is hit by lash. Player has 50% Chance of KD. Player is knocked down. Grounded
is renewed, upped to 75%.
Player spams lash 4 times over the next 10 seconds , on 4th hit, KD occurs. Grounded is renewed, upped to 100%. (G= 10s, 100%)
For next 10 seconds player cannot be knocked down. Grounded expires. Cycle starts again.

What does this mean?
1. if spammed, has less chance to knock down the target until it become ineffective
2. target has successively longer amounts of time to counter the skill
3. Chain KD become virtually impossible. Tactical KD becomes possible.
4. sparing use of lash at opportune moments becomes its ideal function. Choice between tap for dmg, or charge for KD become relevant.

Example of how some skills could be treated:

Shadow Embrace w/ Fatal Allure: Grants grounded upon KD, 20%, 5s.
Would make a full maintain KD target 1 or 2 times. Would discourage Full Maintain, Energy Builder, Full Maintain, or else grounded duration would reach full strength and max duration.
Would make tactical choice of use: If fully maintained, damage would increase, but so would Grounded on opponent. Would you sacrifice damage for utility?
The math for dealing with %chance KD would be: Roll for % chance, Roll for grounded, produce effect. IE: Check for chance of KD, then check for chance for grounded.

Force Eruption: Grants grounded upon KD, 50%, 5s.
Right now, if someone is Melee, Force Eruption is their bane. 100% knockback in a PBAoE. Good luck getting close. With this modification, players COULD spam it whenever opponent is close, but it would *quickly* loose effectiveness until timer runs out. Otherwises, would restrict used to about 1/6 seconds, plenty of time for meleers to do some damage or KD of their own.


ALSO: Add grounded as a buff to certain skills. Example:Add to: Defiance: When used, defines confers Grounded, 50%/3s. While the duration would seem short, it would make skills become reactionary defenses, to become "oh shoot, I got knocked down...well, I'll add 3 seconds to my grounded and now I'm at 100% resist!"

These are, of course, hypothetical numbers. I believe this would be a start of a more eloquent solution to KD issues. Right now, the black or white numbers we have are NOT working.

/signed

Somthing similar should be done for holds as well. I have a character with very high ego and str, and to be honest I don't (in pve play) notice any difference in hold resistance between that character and ones without high str and ego.

Agreed,

Hold and KB surpression is crutial to any MMO pvp. This is not the first game that cryptic has had problems with hold and KB. It was a HUGE dissapointment in cryptics first hero mmo City of Hero's where the pvp logic was, for lack of a better term, messed up. Take into concideration that the game is very new, and the Developers are being proactive with the community to correct such issues. It may take some time to adjust the powers but i have faith that it will be fixed.

Alternate system idea:

Powers with knock-up/back/down/to effects:
All powers with knock-effects have 100% of causing the effect on all targets affected by the power. However, for charged powers, the knock will occur only on full charge. For maintained powers, the knock won't happen until the 4th damage pulse. No knocks on taps.

Knock resists:
All powers with knock give 100% resistance to other knocks for, say, 6 seconds. If a character/critter is hit with another knock power before those 6 seconds are up, another second is added to the time before they can be affected.

I don't agree with this at all. Why should we be penalized for using a KB ability if it doesn't proc? Seems to make no sense. Many powers are DD powers in the first place with KB as an advantage. It seems strange to penalize using those abilities to do what they were originally intended.

And I don't support 100% knockback resist in this form because it's just the same as what we have now. As long as there's no middle ground, KB will never serve a dynamic function outside of "use this every time it can knock somebody down". In your case, people would just use the KB every 6 seconds, and from a tactical standpoint, is this *really* any more fun or dynamic than "use this over and over"?